Release Day Review... Safe Haven by Caitlin Ricci #Review #Giveaway

Being alone was what Blake had always needed before his new team of bodyguards arrived. Now things might be very different.

At
seven years old, Blake’s life was destroyed when he and his parents
were abducted and he watched them being murdered. Now, twenty years
later, he refuses to leave the house and he lives in a constant state of
fear. He has a bodyguard around the clock, a housekeeper who has never
seen his face and an uncle who checks on him often but isn’t all that
close to him. Blake likes his isolation where only his cat really knows
him.

His bodyguard of eight years is ready to retire, leaving his
life in turmoil again. Blake isn’t good with people in general, and new
people are the worst. But he needs someone in his house all the time to
make him feel safe. His uncle hires a team of bodyguards to replace his
old one—Malcolm, CJ and Rex. They come highly recommended, and they’re
good at what they do.

They’re also together and it’s a
relationship that Blake is instantly fascinated by. He’s never been
interested in another person before, and he hasn’t had a real friend
since his parents died, because he has refused to leave the house. But
with the three of them trying to be there for him, he begins to want a
life he has been convinced up to now would be completely impossible.

I'm
a voracious reader of all genre's, pairings, tropes, etc. Menage'
and/or poly relationships are among my favorite stories and when you add
in a hurt/comfort plot on top of that ... well count me in! Thus when I
read the blurb for Safe Haven by Caitlin Ricci I was beyond excited. An
established menage' relationship that wants to add another person?
Check. A guy in desperate need of love and acceptance and understanding?
Double check. A bit of angst? Triple check and hell yes. Unfortunately
this book fell far, far short of all my expectations and by the end, I
just wanted the book to be over. That's never a good thing.

An
implausible plot, characters that weren't well fleshed out, a back
story with too many holes to count, and repetitive writing plagued Safe
Haven from the first page and never got any better. I know this a
shorter book and so there's not the usual build up and development, but
there was so little space given to actually know and understand each of
the characters. Blake had his endearing moments sure, and there's no
doubt that he experienced something terribly traumatic, but at
twenty-seven he STILL needs not one body guard, but three? I've read
books with agoraphobic characters in it so I understand that to tell
someone to just get over and go outside doesn't make sense and it's not
reality, but it's never explained exactly why he should be so afraid to
leave his house. And the relationship aspect of this book? While I did
enjoy the slow build that added in some mighty nice UST, the lack of
real intimacy between these men was sorely lacking.

All
in all, from perusing Goodreads, it seems like the reviews on this one
are pretty split, so this might be a case of it's not me, it's the book.
There were lots of things going on in Safe Haven that just didn't work
for me but that doesn't mean it would be the same for everyone. I've
read other books by this author and really enjoyed them, so she's
someone I'll definitely give another chance to. I'd say if you're
looking for a book to spend a few hours losing yourself in, give this
one a chance and see what you think.